I've been gluten-free and lactose-free (and oat-free) for 9 years now. Look here for advice on eating out, brand foods and recipe ideas. Also check out the pages on food preparation and Yes/No foods if you are catering for someone with these food intolerances. There's still a wealth of food out there to be enjoyed!...

Friday, July 27, 2012

Rub the marg and flour together with your hands and then mix in the cheese.Roll out the dough on a silicone baking sheet (or parchment) and cut into shapes. Cook in the oven for 10-20 mins until crisp.

For Sausage Rolls
I used Black Farmer's Daughter sausages cut into thirds because they are nice and thin, but you could use any GF sausage and squeeze it out of the skin to shape into smaller peices. I used a yellow soya cheese in the pastry to help hold it together but still look like normal puff pastry.

Take a small amount of dough and squidge it around a small piece of sausage. Place on a non-stick baking sheet and press carefully with a fork. Bake until the sausage is cooked. Leave to cool for 10 mins before removing from the tray.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

My boy is not keen on GF bread at the mo (who can blame him!) so am trying to find alternative finger foods for him. Today I thought I'd try spring rolls that are baked not fried (mostly because I don't want to stand there frying them in summer). I've used rice paper and uncooked popadoms as wrappers. The popadoms are a little more tricky to use without breaking so make sure you only soak them until just soft enough to roll. The popadom ones crisp up better than the rice ones so are definitely worth the effort.

Mix all the filling ingredients together with your hands and form little sausage shapes (about a 1/3 the size of a normal sausage).

Fill a large flat bowl with boiling water and allow to cool a bit (so it's fairly warm but not too hot to put your fingers in).

Soak your spring roll wrappers one by one and fill by placing sausage in the centre and rolling, tucking in the ends. Rice wrappers need soaking for just 5 seconds and lentil/pea ones for 10-15 seconds.

Place your spring roll parcels on the lined tray, rub with some vegetable oil and bake in the oven for 20-30 mins or until golden. Carefully turn half way through cooking to make them crisp both sides and avoid them getting a soggy bottom (the rice ones are more prone to this and then the filling can fall out!).

Monday, July 9, 2012

Place all the ingredients in a liquidiser and blend for a few minutes, then strain through a sieve (jostling with a spoon to make it quicker). That's it! Keep in a bottle in the fridge and shake before using. I find it keeps well for nearly a week. The almond meal that you collected with the sieve can be used to make choc brownies or biscuits, but it will be very wet so you'll have to experiment with how much flour to add to your recipes...

Left-over almond meal biscuits
Weigh the almond meal you have left over from making milk and add to it the same weight of icing sugar, double the flour (I used brown rice flour) and about 3 tbsp margarine. Mix it well with your hands to make a sticky, sloppy dough. Spoon onto a lined baking sheet and bake in a medium oven for 40mins or until slightly browned and dry in the middle.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

It's worth getting a load of small tuperware boxes of varying sizes/shapes to fill with snack-sized portions of food. Make sure they are air-tight as some cheapies are not!

Fresh fruit: Grapes, chopped peach (skin removed), apple with a little lemon juice to stop it browning.Dried Fruit: Raisins, chopped apricots, dates, dried apple chopped.Nuts: Peanuts are banned from schools, but cashews and almonds are more nutritious anyway.GF Cereal: GF coco pops or cherio-style cereal. I put these in with some dried fruit for variety.Toddler Crisps: Goodies brand or mini rice cakes. Find in the baby aisle. These are also low salt.Dried Fruit Treats: e.g. school bars, Frootz buttons, Humdinger fruit stars - very processed so I expect there are no vitamins left, but these make a nice alternative to sweets nonetheless.Yoghurt: I put half a soya yoghurt in a baby tuperware (or make my own soya yoghurt for a less sugary option and add vanilla and honey).Indian snack bars: Cofresh brand coconut or peanut bars. Not very healthy but good for a change.Popcorn: Homemade. Cook for 1 min in microwave in a bowl with pierced cling film on (no oil).Poppadoms: Buy plain uncooked. cook for 1 min in microwave on a plate (no extra oil).Houmous+ dippy things: Buy mini pots of houmous or fill a small tuperware. Box/bag up things to dip separately like crisps, poppadoms, carrot,celery,cucumber or crackers. If houmous is too garlicy, try guacamole or home-made pate made from white beans like haricot or butter beans.Home-made biscuits. Try my almond shortbread, or these recommended recipes for gingernuts or digestives.

Cheese: Soya cheese is not very palatable uncooked, but if your child is only lactose intolerant but not milk intolerant (i.e. it doesn't give them exzema or spots) you could pack mini portions of hard cheese. Manchego is a good alternative to cow's milk cheese as it is like a creamy cheddar but made from sheep's milk. I find it doesn't give me a bad skin reaction whereas cow's milk does.